Entitled gamers, corrupt press and greedy publishers

[dagamer]

His point was that SC2 had always on DRM like diablo 3, i can't play Diablo 3 offline. I can play SC2 offline, and of course i am online with my computer when i am online. I get that, SC2 has that whole BattleNet friends wonnabe Facebook Messenger thing. SC2 also has 26 single player missions and heart af swarm has 17 or so. It's a real single player game not just a bot game, so there is valid reason for supporting offline mode.

Yes, if pirates want to play a game that can be copied, they play it. No argument there.

The actual solution to this problem will be to stick components of every game server-side such that cracking the DRM won't do much.

 

[-tkf-]

The actual solution to this problem will be to stick components of every game server-side such that cracking the DRM won't do much.

It's not unlikely some will do that, i expect Blizzard to follow their D3 trend to the max.
But those that choose to do this have to take into account a few things.

Fewer sells, it's very likely that they some people will say no thanks.
Larger investment, you will need enough servers to handle the first rush, see simcity 5.
Simple offline checks will be easier to circumvent, so the game would need to have enough server side code to actually make it hard. Which requires more hardware and adds complexity.
If the game experience suffers there will be hell to pay (see ea)
Higher running costs, when the first million have left the game and it's 2 years old, you still need to run those servers and support them.

The right game can do all this, but many games can't sustain the costs or simply be build around such a solution.

 

[dagamer]

It's not unlikely some will do that, i expect Blizzard to follow their D3 trend to the max.
But those that choose to do this have to take into account a few things.

Fewer sells, it's very likely that they some people will say no thanks.
Larger investment, you will need enough servers to handle the first rush, see simcity 5.
Simple offline checks will be easier to circumvent, so the game would need to have enough server side code to actually make it hard. Which requires more hardware and adds complexity.
If the game experience suffers there will be hell to pay (see ea)
Higher running costs, when the first million have left the game and it's 2 years old, you still need to run those servers and support them.

The right game can do all this, but many games can't sustain the costs or simply be build around such a solution.

Can you really circumvent server-side code on consoles? It's not as if you can patch the game easily to do so like on a PC.

 

[-tkf-]

Can you really circumvent server-side code on consoles? It's not as if you can patch the game easily to do so like on a PC.

Very unlikely, but then again, nothing is impossible..

Ubisoft is feeling that right now.. hackers turning Uplay into the ultimate free download service..

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...play-security-able-to-download-games-for-free

 

[Nisaaru]

After seeing the leaks is there even a reason why they delay the release artificial for a digital release? It's obviously ready if it's in their own dl shop 4 weeks before its official release date.

 

[orangpelupa]

maybe delay because their marketing is not ready and still preparing?

 

[Nisaaru]

maybe delay because their marketing is not ready and still preparing?

Is that really relevant for a digital product start? They don't need to synchronize shop sales windows/storage and potentially risk losses when they miscalculate/mistime it.

 

[dagamer]

Is that really relevant for a digital product start? They don't need to synchronize shop sales windows/storage and potentially risk losses when they miscalculate/mistime it.

The game doesn't require Far Cry 3, which makes me think it'll be a separate boxed SKU.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

It's not unlikely some will do that, i expect Blizzard to follow their D3 trend to the max.
But those that choose to do this have to take into account a few things.

Fewer sells, it's very likely that they some people will say no thanks.
Larger investment, you will need enough servers to handle the first rush, see simcity 5.
Simple offline checks will be easier to circumvent, so the game would need to have enough server side code to actually make it hard. Which requires more hardware and adds complexity.
If the game experience suffers there will be hell to pay (see ea)
Higher running costs, when the first million have left the game and it's 2 years old, you still need to run those servers and support them.

The right game can do all this, but many games can't sustain the costs or simply be build around such a solution.

You may lose some sales due to objections to the always online, but you'll arguably gain a far greater number of sales depending on how prevalent piracy is on your platform. PC games have a lot to gain from this. PS3 games not likely as much. X360 is a bit hard to say. If you don't mind messing around with the hardware a bit then piracy is relatively easy on X360 (are there the equivalent of softmods out for X360 yet? I've stopped keeping tabs on the X360 hacking scene a few years ago). It's still relatively quite a bit more difficult than PC though, so piracy will be lower. Not to mention just the fact that there are fewer consoles than PCs.

Yes, the server infrastructure is expensive to build up and maintain. That's why many companies have significant problems and outages at launch. You don't want to build up your server farm too much because you know that the load will likely die down after the first week and massively drop after the first month.

But, if every game you launch requires it. Then you can somewhat time the launch of a new hotly anticipated game when the load starts to die down from the previous one. As well, building up your server farm now isn't as painful because you know you'll be making use of it constantly. You'll still have an ebb and flow, but it's won't be as large as when only a few of your titles require it.

As well if you also publish some relatively popular MMOs whether F2P or paid monthly, then you can potentially temporarily repurpose some of that server farm.

After seeing the leaks is there even a reason why they delay the release artificial for a digital release? It's obviously ready if it's in their own dl shop 4 weeks before its official release date.

Retail. Retail stores and sales are still too important to piss off. Or do you mean the Far Cry 3 stand alone expansion/DLC? In that case, I'm going to guess they want to make sure to release it at a time when their servers will be under the least stress possible to facilitate a good experience for people buying it. As to why they put it up in the store when they weren't going to sell it yet? Well, why not if you assume no one is going to hack your system. Unfortunately for them, someone did hack their system in a way that is absolutely mindboggling.

Steam has been hacked a few times, but never in a way that would allow someone to gain free access to games sold through Steam. It's incomprehensible how UBIsoft managed to leave a security hole that big that allowed something that disastrous.

Regards,
SB